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William
History William is Mary’s lover, a young roughneck and cuckolded workman at the studio. Works night shift with Andy as a janitor at Temple Studios. He and Mary are squatting in George Buchanan's house in town opposite the motel. Suffers visions and seizures. Kills Mary in sand dunes near the Red Motel sign. The equivalent of Woyzeck in the outside the gates storyline. Appearance Wears a white wife beater and braces. Occasionally wears a white jacket. Loop - Basic - Dresses and shouts for Andy (W&M's Home) - Table dance with Andy (Boardroom) - Auditions with Andrea in front of Claude (Audition Room) - Playfully seduced by Conrad on bar (Saloon) - Spots bracelet on Mary (W&M's home) - Dances in trees with Andy (Woods) - Receives necklace from Andy (by graffiti wall) - Confronts Mary about affair (Car) - Visits the doctor (Medical Room) - Witnesses affair (Saloon) - Beaten up by Dwayne (Saloon) - Helped by Andy (Fountain) - Mary begs for forgiveness (W&M's home) - Murders Mary on sand dunes (Desert) - His and Wendy's stories intersect on either side of the Temple Studios gates - when they stare at each other as if in a mirror. Loop - Extended At the start of his loop, William is at home putting on his work clothes. He walks outside and calls out for his friend, Andy. Together they go to Temple Studios to work a night shift as part of the ‘maintenance crew’. They walk through the studio gates and William nods to The Gatekeeper as they pass. They enter the Boardroom and dance while polishing a large wooden table. William is paranoid and begins to hear voices that seem to be coming from the table, as Andy tries to calm him. Mr Stanford and Claude enter the boardroom and Claude pays both men before they leave. Having earned some money, William takes Mary for a night out at the ‘Horse & Stars Tavern’. An actor from the studio called Conrad is in a sequined dress and singing on the stage. William tries hard to engage with Mary, but for all his efforts she remains distracted. She sees Dwayne, a handsome cowboy at the bar. They’ve met before and she takes a shine to him. Conrad starts to flirt with his audience and William’s reactions are awkward and uncomfortable. Conrad strokes him down to his crotch and William pulls his hand away, grimacing. Dwayne is more comfortable with his own masculinity and happy to flirt with the drag queen. Conrad continues to tease William and pulls him up to the microphone. William tries to laugh, but Conrad mocks him with increasing cruelty and the mood sours. William has had enough and he exits the bar, pulling Mary with him. Once outside, they part and William goes back to work at the studio. He enters the Audition Suite, a large room with a checkerboard stage, where he tidies and carries out his duties as janitor. Nearby, a young actress, Andrea, is auditioning for a studio executive, Claude Estee. Claude is wearing a Fedora hat and sitting silently in a leather armchair. The voice of Mr Stanford is giving instructions, ‘Can we get someone up there please?’ Claude turns to William and tells him to join the performance. He encourages Andrea to slap him as part of the act and she nervously obliges. Claude revels in their discomfort and William runs away humiliated. He goes back to Mary who’s waiting at home. She’s returned from a romantic liaison with Dwayne at the studio and is elated and guilty. She dances with William around a swinging bench on their front porch, but the dance becomes a battle. William lifts her by her outstretched arms and pins her against the house like a doll. He puts her down and spots something on her wrist. He discovers a sparkling new bracelet given to her by Dwayne. He storms off and Mary moves sadly into the house. William heads for the woods where he meets his friend Andy. He scales the trees and hangs in the air between trunks. They walk on and stop by a wall covered in graffiti. Andy is concerned for his friend and puts a charm around his neck to bring him good luck, but William’s fate has already been set in motion. He takes the necklace off and puts it in his pocket. William walks back towards his house and finds Mary waiting by a clapped-out Studebaker. He confronts her again about the affair and they conduct a passionate, angry dance across the body of the car. The scene ends with him falling dramatically from the roof. He leaves in a state of panic and enters Temple Studios, where he visits the surgery of the studio doctor. The Doctor feeds William a single pea before giving him a medical examination. He asks William to take off his shirt and draws a strange set of pre-surgical marks on his stomach. He draws the outline of a pair of lungs and then a squiggly line to show them full of water. He gives William a glass of water, but when William pours it onto the floor, the water has turned to sand. The Doctor makes William stand like Da Vinci’s ‘Vitruvian Man’, before lighting up an image of the famous painting from a projector. In the same way that he was a reluctant and resentful ‘actor’ for Claude, William is a grudging, suspicious patient for The Doctor, performing only for the money. William puts his shirt back on and as he leaves, The Doctor pays him for his participation. William heads over to the Tavern for the Hoedown. He joins the party late and stumbles through the dancing. He’s nudged out of the way by the others, as ‘Burnin’ Hell’ blasts out of the jukebox. Mary is lost in the dance and hardly acknowledges him. She partners up with Dwayne and they escape for a clandestine meeting outside. Inside, the lights go down and the only thing illuminated is a window, revealing their undulating bodies. William stares in shock, as the music slows and the grinding doom jazz of ‘Texas Keller’ by Bohren and der Club of Gore reverberates around the bar. The other characters lie prone on the floor and William reaches up and grabs a light swinging from the ceiling. He hangs from it without moving, holding his position with steady control. Dwayne pushes Mary against the window and his kisses progress to what looks like a rough sexual attack. Dwayne withdraws, leaving Mary on her own, destroyed. Back inside, William is in a jealous rage. Dwayne comes in and William fights him. His friend Andy tries to help, but Dwayne relishes the challenge and defeats the two friends with a macho display of violence. William and Andy stagger out of the bar to the fountain in the town square. They wash their injuries and rest on a bench. They exchange some items and Andy again tries to get William to wear the charm necklace. William takes off his wedding ring and empties his pockets, leaving his belongings on the wet stone at the edge of the fountain. He paces around in circles, agitated, before disappearing and leaving Andy utterly desolate. Andy sinks his head into the cold water. William returns to his home where he meets Mary. She’s remorseful and begs for forgiveness. William seemingly takes her back and they embrace. They walk to the Tavern and dance romantically to ‘Remember (Walking in the Sand)’ by The Shangri-La’s. They continue upstairs to the top floor, the whole of which is a desert, completely covered in sand. William has been led here by a silent calling. William and Mary share a tender moment dancing in the sand. Nearby is a neon sign for the ‘Red Moon Motel’, half buried in the dune like a remnant from a lost world. They climb a steep hill and rest, and Mary sits on his lap. They look into the distance and William puts his arms around her. His embrace slowly becomes a stranglehold and Mary’s expression turns from confusion to horror. She begins to kick and flail, but she’s overpowered. He squeezes the life out of her with a haunted, blank look on his face. Mary slowly melts away into the ground and disappears. William looks at his hands and all that’s left is an empty slip. He can’t comprehend what’s happened and he stumbles to the bottom of the dune. He shouts for Mary, but his calls are unanswered. He strokes the face of an audience member, but she shakes her head. Horrified, he goes back to the town looking for his love. He walks to the metal gates of the studio, which are closed. As the reset music swells, he encounters a bloody Wendy trapped on the other side. They look at each other through the gates, bathed in blue light. William is still carrying Mary’s slip, which he passes to Wendy through the gates. He staggers home, cowed and broken. Final Show Trivia . Like Charles Halloway in ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’, William is a janitor. Quotes References Image credit: http://wos.tm-cdn.com/photos/81656.jpg[[Category:Characters]]